South Carolina votes in the first Democratic primary of 2024. While Biden and Harris run virtually unopposed, how voters talk about issues that are important to them could offer clues for November.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Black voters helped lift President Biden and Vice President Harris into the White House three years ago. And one big question for this political season is whether Black voters and young voters will show up again this November across the country with the same strength they did in 2020. Today we get a clue as South Carolina votes in the state’s first-in-the-nation Democratic primary. My co-host Juana Summers is there and brings us this story.
JUANA SUMMERS, BYLINE: We met Kambrell Garvin near a massive construction site just off a long stretch of highway.
Tell us about where we are right now outside this job site.
KAMBRELL GARVIN: Absolutely. So welcome to Blythewood, a small town just outside of Columbia, S.C. And we’re at – outside of – on the street corner of the Scout Motors plant, which is a multibillion-dollar investment here in South Carolina…
SUMMERS: Thirty-two years old, he’s a Democrat representing Richland County in South Carolina’s state House. And the vast stretch of land behind us will one day be home to a $2 billion Scout Motors electric vehicle plant. Garvin said it’s expected to bring 4,000 new jobs to the area.
GARVIN: So the Biden administration, through their Inflation Reduction Act, really gave manufacturers – EVs – those companies, it really gave them an incentive to build. And quite honestly, had it not been for the investment that President Biden made, I don’t think that this plant would be here in ruby-red South Carolina.
SUMMERS: It’s a tangible example of what Biden’s presidency has delivered to the state, a promise kept to the voters who trusted him in 2020. But some recent polling shows Biden underperforming with Black voters, particularly Black men and young voters, compared…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply